Review: 'The Soiling of Old Glory,' by Louis Masur

BY JAMES RALPH | Chicago Tribune

May 4, 2008

THE SOILING OF OLD GLORY: The Story of a Photograph That Shocked America, by Louis P. Masur. Bloomsbury, 224 pp., $24.95

America, Sen. Barack Obama said in his recent speech on race relations, has been "stuck" in a "racial stalemate" for many years. Obama noted the palpable anger among blacks over the obstacles they have faced because of race, as well the resentments within "segments of the white community" over policies designed to benefit others, seemingly at their expense.

It is difficult to identify a more telling emblem of that "racial stalemate" than the Boston busing crisis of the mid-1970s. When the federal courts ordered busing to redress the long-standing policies of the city's school committee to minimize the interaction of black and white students in the public schools, many working-class whites erupted.

In April 1976, Theodore Landsmark, a Yale-educated black lawyer, was on his way to an affirmative-action meeting at City Hall and inadvertently ran into an antibusing rally. When a contingent of the white antibusers saw the well-dressed black man, they attacked him.

Stanley Forman, a photographer for the Boston Herald American, captured the assault on camera. One of his pictures showed a white teenager from South Boston - Joseph Rakes - trying to spear Landsmark with an American flag. That photograph, "The Soiling of Old Glory," became one of the most widely known images in modern American history.

Louis A. Masur's compelling new book, "The Soiling of Old Glory," is the first comprehensive study of the making of that photograph and its significance. Masur, who teaches at Trinity College in Hartford, examines why the photo was so startling and why it continues to resonate into our own time.

He also analyzes the photo as a composition, commenting on the effect of the slight blurriness of the image and the interplay of light and dark. The strong vertical lines of the cobblestone street, he writes, "direct our eyes from foreground to middle ground, where the horizontal action is taking place."

The potency of "The Soiling of Old Glory," the author explains, also flows from its dialogue with well-known historical and cultural markers in American life. In the background of Forman's photo is the Old State House. It was near this building in 1770 that the Boston Massacre unfolded. Paul Revere immortalized this assault on freedom-loving Colonists in a famous engraving. Later, William Cooper Nell refreshed Revere's engraving by highlighting the death of black patriot Crispus Attucks.

And then there is "Flag Raising on Mt. Suribachi, 1945." Joe Rosenthal's image of World War II Marines planting an American flag in the midst of the battle for Iwo Jima captured the country's determination to fight for democracy. "The Soiling of Old Glory," snapped in the historic cradle of American liberty during the bicentennial year, directly challenged America's self-definition as a virtuous country devoted to freedom.

Masur follows the lives of the principal protagonists - Forman, the photographer; James Kelly, the antibusing rally organizer; Rakes, the assailant; and Landsmark, the victim - up to the present. Forman won a Pulitzer Prize for the "The Soiling of Old Glory"; in the early 1980s, he went to work as a videographer for one of Boston's TV stations.

Kelly, who recently died, devoted his life to serving South Boston, the working-class district of the city that most resisted court-ordered busing. After his election to the City Council in 1983, he gained the respect of other city politicians for his advocacy on behalf of his constituents. Masur contends that Kelly, who never hesitated to voice his suspicions of grand liberal projects, came to support equal rights for all.

Rakes has endured the bumpiest road since 1976. Convicted of assault with a dangerous weapon for the beating of Landsmark, he toiled in minimum-wage jobs for years and had to flee Boston because of another altercation with the law. He returned in 1988 and slowly built a fulfilling life. He married, bought a home north of the city and worked in construction. While Rakes remains the most enigmatic of the central players, he has sought to move beyond the defining episode in this life, of which he been ashamed for many years.

After the beating, Landsmark did not follow the advice of friends and leave Boston for a friendlier place. In the late 1980s and '90s, he worked for mayors Ray Flynn and Thomas Menino to improve race relations in the city. Today, Landsmark is president of the Boston Architectural College, and though he knows he is a public symbol of the battle over busing, he wants Bostonians to focus on the possibilities of the present and the future. The City of Boston has not used race as a factor in school assignments since 1999, and Landsmark knows that parents desire diversity but above all value quality education for their sons and daughters. Landsmark says he forgave his attackers long ago.

In the end, according to Masur, "The Soiling of Old Glory," which captured "an instant of unthinkable racial hatred" and initially sparked "turmoil and self-scrutiny," has helped lead - as shown in the trajectory of the lives of four central protagonists - "to progress and healing." Masur even uncovers a redemptive theme buried in Forman's photo; the drama captured is more complex than commonly understood. Not only did Rakes never actually strike Landsmark with the flag, but one of the white men who seemed to be attacking the black lawyer was actually James Kelly - trying to halt the beating.